Ch. I received a video 9 I received a video 9

Chapter 9 No Chance 

I looked at them over for two seconds before finally saying, “So, the first thing you did after getting out of detention was to come here and ask me to take the blame and clear your names?” 

Silas panicked and took another step toward me. “My life will be ruined if this stays on record! What’s so hard about posting a statement? It’s not like it’ll kill you!” 

“Did you ever think about what would’ve happened if I’d actually ended up at a community college when you changed my college application? Did you ever stop once to consider whether my life would’ve been ruined?” 

Rachel’s face turned deathly pale. Her lips trembled as she reached toward my arm, but I quickly pulled my hand away. “Sonia, you can’t be this heartless. We’re begging you. We won’t ever bother you again after this. Isn’t that enough?” 

I straightened my spine as I retorted, “You spent seven days in detention because you broke the law. Whether or not I post a statement has nothing to do with it. You stained your own records, not me.” 

I pulled the door shut. 

When it was halfway closed, I paused and spoke one final sentence through the crack. My voice wasn’t loud, but the hallway was so quiet that every word carried. “You want me to lie to save your skins? Maybe in your next life. 

The door clicked shut. 

I could hear Rachel’s sobs pierce through the door. “I told you she wouldn’t agree to help us! She just wants to watch us suffer!” 

Silas lowered his voice, so only a few broken words drifted through. “Stop yelling. We’ll talk about this when we get back…” 

Their footsteps gradually faded away. 

I stood behind the door for a long time before finally turning and going back to my room. 

The day after I turned their gracious offer down, a third video appeared online. 

Rachel sat in front of the camera with her hair hanging in a mess. Her eyes were swollen like a pufferfish, and she looked rough without makeup on, so much so that it was now obvious to anyone looking that two pimples had broken out on her forehead. 

She cried into the microphone until her voice turned hoarse and cracked. 

“None of this was our fault! Sonia staged the whole thing! We were wrongfully locked up for seven days, and she wouldn’t even post a single statement to clear things up. She just wants to destroy our lives!” 

Silas sat beside her without the slightest expression. He stared straight into the camera, as if he were looking somewhere far away. 

“It wasn’t enough for her to humiliate us after she changed her application back to Defense Technology 

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Institute. She just had to twist things and frame us!” 

At the end of the video, Rachel covered her face and let out a wail. “She ruined our lives!” 

The screen then went black for three seconds before a line of small text appeared in the lower-right corner. ” Please help spread the truth.” 

The video quickly climbed onto the local trending list with the help of clickbait accounts. 

Unfortunately for them, the comment section wasn’t all gungho about supporting them this time around. 

Some people asked, “Then, how do you explain the internet cafe’s security footage?” 

Others simply dropped screenshots of the administrative detention orders into the comments. 

No one knew where they had come from. Still, Rachel and Silas’ personal information had been blurred out, but everything matched. The two bright red lines reading “Seven Days of Administrative Detention” were impossible to miss. 

The comment section was rife with criticisms and arguments for the entire day. 

As for me, I simply opened my WhatsApp chat with the investigating officer and sent one message. “Do I need to do anything?” 

I got a reply 10 minutes later. “No. The legal documents are proof of their misconduct.” 

On the third day after that post was made, my parents and I were eating lunch at home when someone knocked on the door around noon. 

The moment I opened it, I saw four people standing outside. 

Silas and Rachel’s parents were standing there. 

The four of them crowded into the narrow hallway. Their expressions were all different, but every face looked pale. 

Silas and Rachel stood behind them with their heads lowered, shrinking behind their parents like two unruly cats being carried by the scruffs of their necks. 

Samantha’s eyes were red, and she’d bitten her lipstick into a smear. 

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